Fort Building
Fort building is one of those creative play activities that can be done from ages 2 (with lots of help!) up to the teen years.
When my sons were little adventurers, they delighted in creating enchanted forts - whether at school, in our backyard, or right in the heart of our home. I discovered that having supplies neatly tucked away nearby sparked their imaginations, leading to frequent building sprees. Our living room often transformed into a fantastical construction zone, where sofa cushions became sturdy walls, kitchen chairs turned into towering turrets, and every sheet and blanket was draped like the finest silken canopies. Soon, the entire space beneath became a secret hideaway, where they and the neighborhood children would crawl in, bringing along their favorite toys and books, ready to embark on the grandest of adventures.
Our Playclips are small and easy for children to use to build their own magical fort! They will clip and securely hold Playsilks, blankets, and sheets onto tables, chairs and sofas.
Our new Playforts are the newest addition to our fort building collection. We've heard from parents and teachers how much they love how lightweight and easy the Playfort set is to build and take apart - each Playfort set comes in its own canvas bag for easy storage! See how our friend Liz and her little ones put together and decorated their Playfort here.
Secret play forts are magical places where childhood memories are made. Being given the autonomy to help create their own play space is incredibly meaningful for children - and with simple fort building tools like Playsilks and Playclips, it's easy for them to bring their dream play space to life!
I hope you'll share some ideas of how your children build forts in the comments below. We will randomly choose one winner that will receive a Playfort Kit of your choice on 8/19.
Everyone who enters will also receive a coupon code for 30% of Playforts on 8/19 through email.
We love seeing the many ways our community uses Playsilks to make their own beautiful forts! Indoors and outdoors, big and small, here are a few examples to inspire your next fort building adventure:
Left to right:
My kids love to use the giant silks with their nugget couch creations to create fox holes and bear dens 🥰
Rebecca Doane on
When my daughter and I build forts, it’s always an adventure filled with imagination and creativity! She loves to set the scene—whether we’re fairies in a magical forest, a queen and princess in a castle, or scientists in a secret lab, her creativity knows no bounds. We’ve turned our fort into a cozy tent to read books under the stars or even a spaceship exploring distant planets. Using everything from blankets and cardboard to sticks from the yard, we secure it with sneakers, pots, or even dad’s tools! I’m her co-pilot, ensuring it’s sturdy while letting her lead. These moments together are pure magic and endless fun.
Danielle W. on
Our homeschool group has an annual fort building outing at a local park/wooded walking trail area. The kids work in small groups within their age range using forest materials to build shelters. They are able to bring a long extras from home such as ropes, tarps, or bungee cords to use in their shelter. It’s such a fun opportunity to see their teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving skills come to life.
At home, we enjoy adding play clips to hold sheets onto our play couch builds. The clips made a good stocking stuffer two years ago.
Leah S on
We have a video of the fort our grandkids made with uncle and Auntie babysitters. It was like a town from the unicorn island to the post office. Used all their creativity. In building and so fun playing
. ❤️🧡💛💚💜💙 recently ordered the giant playsilks because I think they will be perfect for such play
Kay on
I have such fond memories of building forts out of couch cushions and sheets with my brother growing up and I am thrilled with all of the options play silks bring to the table with fort building with my daughter!
Elizabeth Varra on
My 4 kids enjoy planning “sleepovers” in their forts. They get filled with sleeping bags, flashlights and all of sorts of paraphernalia.
Morgan Cape on
My kids love building forts with our dining room chairs in the living room—all blankets and pillows gathered to make a grand fort. But their newest spot is in our closet with all our Sarah’s Silks draped for a cozy secret magical fort!
Kiana Chavez on
My daughters love moving all the couch cushions to try to get them as tall as possible then cover them with blankets. They also recently started moving our countertop height chairs to create their newest fort. They used blankets and the plastic clips to attach some blankets. Then they filled it up with these small soft chairs, stuffed animals, and books. It was very cute! I definitely would prefer the wooden clips over the plastic ones we were given as a gift. My twin 2 yr olds also love joining their sisters in the forts they create.
Samantha N on
Our favorites for forts are relatively simple, adding blankets on top of the kitchen table, to the girls canopy beds, or hanging them over the slack ropes we have outside (a favorite). We don’t yet have your fort size play-silks or fort set so we’ve had to get extra creative.
Katy on
I remember building forts with my cousins in the basement and putting “no grown ups allowed 🚫” signs up, it was the best.
We recently got a new deep freezer and the box it came in was two weeks worth of entertainment for the kids. When it finally collapsed, there wasn’t a surface that wasn’t colored or a wall that didn’t have a window addition, it was wonderful.
Emma on
We love building playforts for “secret hiding spots” we can place them all over the living room and make a new world. We love using the nugget and then playsilks on top because they’re so light it doesn’t affect the play structure!
Amanda Seaton on
Our granddaughter LOVES her play fort enhanced with room additions from cushions off our couch further covered in silks for a castle of silks covering our entire living room!
Eileen on